Political Thoughts with Richard Bleil
Here’s an opening statement to tick off my conservative and Republican friends. There is no doubt in my mind the Trump is guilty. He openly encouraged people into a violent uprising at our nation’s capital, where people died which would not have happened had it not been for the then-president’s encouragement. Additional information has arisen that suggests that key members of his inner circle did more than just encourage. At the very least, I believe Trump to be guilty of sedition and attempting to overthrow our Constitution (shameful for a sitting president). He is a blight on our political system.
The rest of this blog could very well tick off the remainder of my friends. Starting today (as of the posting of this blog), the January 6 committee intends to publicize its findings on prime-time television. While I supported, and defended, the committee and their work, the reality is that our laws guarantee that we can face our accusers, but that’s not possible on television. The work of the January 6 committee was legitimate, investigating some very serious crimes by the previous White House administration, but they just lost most, if not all, of their legitimacy.
I have no doubt that the committee uncovered damning evidence of wrong doing, but the decision to go public with this information has turned the entire investigation into a political game show. If, indeed, their evidence is as strong as they are saying, it should be used in the courts to bring charges, the only way to get justice in our Constitution. Does the American public have the right to know what happened? Yes, of course they do, when the time is right, and the right time is after it is presented in court. To present it publicly is nothing more than an effort to turn Republican supporters away from their party, making the goal to win elections in an obvious attempt to maintain control of both houses of Congress, despite how little they’ve accomplished with such control in the past two years.
There’s an old protest song by Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth”, from 1967. The story goes that the band happened on a protest with teenagers on one side, parents on the other, and the subject of the protest was so trivial that they wrote a song about it. Part of the lyrics are “nobody’s right, if everybody’s wrong.” This is how I am feeling about what’s happening with the investigation. People keep saying that Trump was “acquitted in the senate” but he wasn’t. If Trump was acquitted, then so was Clinton and even Nixon. Never has a president been impeached by the House, and removed from office by the Senate, so the same thing that happened with Trump (twice) happened with every impeached president. Are we ready to say that Nixon was acquitted?
In the investigation, the Republican Party refused to participate, early on, unless a list of demands were met, thinking there was no way the Democrats, in control of both houses, would acquiesce. To their surprise, the Democrats agreed. Without any further excuses to avoid participation, the Republicans simply refused without further comment. Today there are Republicans on the committee by invitation. I don’t blame the Democrats for convening this special investigation committee without Republican approval as the GOP simply gave them no other alternative.
The investigation needed to happen, with or without Republicans. But to turn the investigation with serious criminal consequences into a play for popularity and votes has turned it from a serious criminal investigation into a witch hunt. Now we can expect Trump and his team to come up with a political public response, which would be very appropriate and fair. Am I suggesting that you, my loyal reader, should not watch? Not at all. Whether or not you are a Trump supporter or liberal wanting to see him brought to justice, there is no doubt that a lot will be revealed. But just as I hope that you realize that my posts are all one-sided as you read them since you’re only hearing my voice and my side of the story, the Democratic Show for Votes will similarly be one-sided, and incomplete.
Some years ago, there were two young girls, maybe eleven or twelve years old, who would walk into my house at two or three in the morning. I knew them and their mother, and all of them knew me well enough to know that I would be awake and would never do anything inappropriate (we would visit, paint D&D figurines and things like that). If you listen to somebody who witnessed this, it would sound very bad. The implication that there was something illegal happening would be a foregone conclusion, because it’s exciting to believe and it’s how it looked. Without hearing their side of it, there would be no way to know that the visits were completely innocent. Am I saying that Trump is innocent? No. But I am saying that you won’t hear the other side, as a judge would if this presentation of evidence was taken to the proper channels. In my humble opinion.
Bleil's Banter 